The electronic warfare plane was flying at low altitude but there is "not typically anything in the area that perhaps it would have hit," said Cheryl Seigal, spokeswoman for the Umatilla County sheriff's office.

In November 2001, a Prowler jet flown out of Whidbey Island crashed on the Olympic Peninsula, followed a week later by the similar crash of a Prowler flown by Marines out of Cherry Point, N.C. Both crews ejected safely and suffered only minor injuries.

A Navy investigation found that the crashes were caused by a defective bearing in the right engine that years earlier had been recommended for redesign.

The Prowler carries a pilot and three tactical crew members. It can jam enemy radar while providing countermeasures against radar-guided guns and missiles, according to the Naval Historical Center site.